This article falls under the category of “I wish I knew then what I know now”.
Going back to work after my Big Girl was born made my breastfeeding a bit complicated. Yet, I was determined to continue feeding her my breast milk for as long as I was able to produce it (and I did for 2 years). I expressed my breast milk into bottles and froze it so that it could be thawed and fed to her in my absence. However, a new study published in the journal Nutritional Neuroscience claims that what I did is wrong. So if you’re a breastfeeding mom, or plan to breastfeed your baby, please read on.
This research shows that the composition of breast milk changes quite noticeably throughout the day and that breast milk should be drunk at the same time of day that it is expressed.
Breast milk contains various ingredients, such as nucleotides, which perform a very important role in regulating babies’ sleep. The highest nucleotide concentrations were found in the night-time samples (8pm to 8am). “This made us realize that milk induces sleep in babies”, says Cristina L. Sánchez, lead author of the article and a researcher at the Chrononutrition Laboratory at the University of Extremadura, Spain.
That is to say, in order to ensure correct nutrition, the baby should be given milk at the same time of day that it was expressed from the mother’s breast. “It is a mistake for the mother to express the milk at a certain time and then store it and feed it to the baby at a different time”, points out the researcher.
“You wouldn’t give anyone a coffee at night, and the same is true of milk – it has day-specific ingredients that stimulate activity in the infant, and other night-time components that help the baby to rest”, explains Sánchez.
I believe that research like this complicates the whole breastfeeding vs. formula issue. What do you think?
Read more here.
Source: www.sciencedaily.com
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While this is probably true, I think that this puts even more pressure on moms and could even push women to opt for formula instead of dealing with this. I am sure that even morning breast milk at night is better than formula feeding.
Janine, I couldn’t agree more with you! In an ideal world mothers would be there to breastfeed their babies whenever their baby is hungry. In reality, we all have busy lives so some moms will most likely store their breast milk & give it to the baby at a later time.
I do agree that this type of research probably complicates the whole breastfeeding issue even more, but hope that this will not push moms to opt for formula if they’re fortunate enough to breastfeed.
Thank you Janine for adding value to this post!